Running a large campus like UCLA is never an easy task, but the
job is about to get tougher ““ incoming administrators can
expect to face both a growing workload and dwindling resources.
Money has been tight at UCLA before ““ the early 1990s are
a recent example ““ but anticipated rapid enrollment growth
sets the challenges of the present and immediate future apart.
The problem? The onset of Tidal Wave II, the expected influx of
60,000 students into the UC by 2010 is happening alongside massive
budget cuts across almost all state agencies, including the
University of California.
“The biggest new challenge is really a combination of two
things, the budget restraints, indeed reductions, and particularly
when combined with enrollment growth … they are both going on at
the same time … which is different than it was 10 years
ago,” said Chancellor Albert Carnesale.
Next year’s financial outlook is bleak ““ Gov. Gray
Davis’ budget proposal slashes the UC’s budget by $300
million.
“The whole place is in turmoil because we don’t know
how bad those budget cuts are going to be,” said French
department chair Eric Gans.
Fiscal troubles will impact students, faculty and staff alike.
With cuts anticipated for student services, Janina Montero, slated
to become vice chancellor for student affairs in July, singled out
finances as a key issue she expects to face.
“Right now we are all facing an important challenge … in
terms of budget reductions,” she said.
As administrators struggle to balance budgets, they cannot
ignore long-term consideration like faculty recruitment.
Executive Vice-Chancellor Daniel Neuman, who arrived at UCLA
last July, has witnessed the beginnings of financial troubles in
the first months of his tenure.
Despite budget constraints, UCLA will do as much as possible to
hire quality professors, he said.
“We will continue being as aggressive as we have in the
past … putting the priority on recruiting the highest (quality)
faculty,” he said.
This will be a difficult task. Timothy Tangherlini, vice-chair
of the Scandinavian section in the humanities division, recalled
how in the early 1990s, faculty members in his department were
lured away to other schools.
Officials will need to find new faculty while retaining
professors coveted by other institutions.
“Other universities, quite rightly, are looking at our
faculty like a child looks at an orchard full of pretty
fruit,” said English department chair Thomas Wortham.
Deans and vice-chancellors have more to their jobs than managing
resources. A constant in the job is the need to make sure UCLA
balances its commitments.
“It’s not simply that we do education, research and
service … but that they are integrated, and it’s the same
people who do all three,” Carnesale said. All faculty are
expected to work towards all three components of UCLA’s
mission. Especially strong is the connection between research and
teaching.
“A primary thing in a world-class teaching/research
university is to hire people doing world-class research,”
said physiological sciences chair Arthur Arnold.
While it can seem like negative challenges dominate the horizon,
Wortham sees opportunities for new deans to continue trends
increasing chances for interdisciplinary studies.
“We’re not isolated in our separate spheres,”
he said.